Elements of good workplace relationships

1. Trust: The ability to trust your coworkers and feel that you can rely on
them is important when building a workplace relationship.

2. Acceptance: Acceptance and understanding of one another and your

role in the workplace relationship is an important element.

3. Team member: Individuals who work well in a team setting, doing their
fair share of the work and giving credit when it is due, tend to have
stronger relationships.

4. Open communication: Open communication is crucial to any

relationship, including a workplace one. One of the first steps toward a
working relationship is encouraging open communication, asking
questions and getting to know your coworkers.

1 Introduction ● A relationship has been started organically >> being with each
other for 5 days a week, confined in the same space, taking
breaks together, sharing some ideas and parts of yourselves with 1
each other.
● Sustaining this relationship may be what would take more time
and effort.

2. Communication Human knot

● All participants stand in a circle facing one another and close
enough that they’re shoulder-to-shoulder.
● Have everyone put their right hand out and grab the hand of a
person across from them. 5
● Have them put their left hand out and grab another person's hand
across them.
● The group must then figure out how to untangle the knot of arms
within a set amount of time without releasing hands.
 ● Identify 2 or 3 members who must keep silent during the entire
activity.
Processing:
● How does it feel to be able to say what you think the problem is?
● How does it feel for your suggestion to be recognized? 5
● How does it feel for your suggestion not to be recognized?
● What made the instruction easy to understand?
● Why did you not get the instruction given by your colleague?
● How does it feel not to be able to say anything at all?
Concepts:
1. Communication has 3 parts – sender, message and receiver.
Sometimes there is only 1 receiver, and sometimes there may be
multiple receivers, and here, the message may be perceived
differently.
2. The transmission of the message from sender to recipient can be
affected by a huge range of things. These include our emotions,
the cultural situation, the medium used to communicate, and
even our location. The complexity is why good communication
skills are considered so desirable by employers around the world:
accurate, effective and unambiguous communication is actually 3
extremely hard.
3. For communication to be effective, the 5Cs must be present -
clear, correct, complete, concise, compassionate.(other sources
talk about the 7Cs)
● Clear - instead of “Please get back to me,” we say “Get
back to me with your decision as to whether you will take
a leave or not before EOD tomorrow.”
● Correct - accuracy of thoughts
● Compassionate - “stepping into the shoes of others,”
taking the audience into consideration (i.e, the audience’s
viewpoints, background, mind-set, education level, etc.)
Make an attempt to envisage your audience, their
requirements, emotions as well as problems. Ensure that
the self-respect of the audience is maintained and their
 emotions are not at harm. Modify your words in message
to suit the audience’s needs while making your message
complete.

2 Trust Island Hopping

● Tell that group that the task may be quite difficult.
● Have the members select 2 members who will lead them in the
tasks.
● Place 2 markers away from each other. Tell the group that the 5
objective is for the 2 chosen members to transfer the rest of the
group from one marker to the other making sure that no part of
their body will touch the floor.
Processing:
● What is your basis for the selection of the leaders?
● What were you thinking of while you were being transported from 3
one island to another?
Concepts:
● The more your employees trust one another, the stronger and
more productive your team will be.
● Importance of trust in the workplace
○ Develops collaboration and teamwork 3
○ Increases team morale and reduces stress
○ Fosters a culture of error
○ Empowers people
○ Just to share some numbers: Research has shown that
people who work in high trust companies experience
74% less stress, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer
sick days, 40% less burnout and 76% more
engagement.
● A lack of trust encourages feelings of disempowerment and
disenchantment resulting in a lack of effort or care.
● Feedback: Give It, Take It - best way to develop trust
○ Requires honesty from the giver
○ Requires vulnerability from the receiver
3 Acceptance Mute, Deaf and Blind
● Each group must have 3-4 members.
○ Member 1 can only use their ears and hands.
○ Member 2 can only use their eyes and mouth.
○ Member 3 can only use their ears and feet.
○ Member 4 can only use their hands, feet and ears. 8
● Members will be given the following instructions.
○ The facilitator will give member 1 the instruction to be
executed by member 4.
○ Member 1 will have to transfer the instruction to member
2.
○ Member 2 will have to guide members 3 and 4
Processing:
● How was it? What made the task difficult? What made it easy?
● What did you needed/employ to be able to do the task? 3
Concepts:
● In order for one to receive feedback, there must be a good level
of acceptance – acceptance of what one can and cannot do.
● Once we have accepted our strengths and weaknesses, this
allows us to seek help, collaborate, and delegate. 2